


dancing in the red rain, tied up to the bed post, falling like a tear stain (only for your cold ghost)

by thispapermoon



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Misunderstandings, Post-Spelling Bee, Smut, build up to smut, but tbh, exhausted magic, hecate and pippa have a lot of it, honestly they are both FOoLs, just a lot of ust between them, that just needs some resolving, the usual angst, they are disasters, they're both just really ready to get some, totally based on the angry looks they give each other in spelling bee, why do i always use storms as sexual tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-10-31 09:18:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17846669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thispapermoon/pseuds/thispapermoon
Summary: Pippa sneezes, and soft candle light fills the space, making the air seem gentle and warm.“Oh Merlin,” Pippa grimaces, “I know you frown upon accidental magic, but I do think that sneeze boosted my Light Spell. It wasn’t coming out at all until just then.”Hecate shakes her head, aware that her long hair and gown is dripping into an ever growing puddle at her feet. She tries to feel her own magic but realizes just how exhausted she is, how terribly spent from the high emotions of the day, from the storm, from being so close to Pippa.Still, she tries a Drying Spell, chagrined when nothing happens.“You too, huh?” Pippa murmurs, giving her a look she can’t interpret.****After the events of The Spelling Bee, Hecate follows Pippa into a raging storm, hoping to assist her back to Pentangle's. Pippa misinterprets her motives. It takes several tries before they get things right.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i've had this in my drafts since feb 2018, dusting it off because i feel like i need it after all the IM nonsense.
> 
> honestly, i would love to turn this into a series, but this works as a stand alone as well so putting it up. might come back to it?

“And have you considered her offer?”

Mildred looks up at her steadily. “Yes.”

Pippa appears beside her, able to transfer whereas Hecate’s nerves are in far to fragile a state to achieve such a feat.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense.”

Clearly Pippa is not as affected by recent events, for even now Hecate can’t help the way her own eyes drop and drag across Pippa’s form as she stands beside her. She can still feel where Pippa’s body pressed against her own, the brush of her breath against her neck. Forcing herself to focus, she prepares for Mildred to reject her, just as she has always been rejected. A dark and crooked shadow to Pippa’s pink and perfect light.  

But Mildred looks her in the eyes and says with certainty, “I want to stay here.” She smiles a little, “I like being the odd one out.”

Overwhelmed, Hecate stares after as she turns and traipses away down the hall, kneesock down around one ankle, braids swinging.

Pippa touches her elbow and she jerks around, coming to terms with how close Pippa is standing and just how warm her eyes are.

“I think you can expect great things from that girl.”

Hecate casts her eyes skyward. “If you mean a regularly blown up potions lab -”

“I recall we blew up the potions lab a time or two,” Pippa’s eyes twinkle and Hecate hums a little, remembering.

For suddenly it all comes back to her. The late nights studying together, Pippa’s arm pressed against her own. Early mornings sneaking from their rooms and running free amongst the dewdrop strewn grasses at the outskirts of the school, collecting nettles and wild primrose. How Hecate had felt when Pippa had braided some into her hair, eyes soft in the rising morning sun.

A shiver runs through her and she realizes that Pippa’s still looking at her, in much the same way now as she did then.

“It was a long time ago,” she manages. “I have learned self control. Mildred Hubble could stand to do the same.”

Pippa’s fingers are still pressing her elbow, and Hecate suppresses another shiver.

“Well, she can’t very well concentrate if she’s worried about the fate of her cat. Do be a dear and return the poor puss to her?”

Hecate releases a long suffering sigh but finds she can’t deny Pippa the request. Could never deny Pippa a request.

Or Mildred, it seems, for that matter.

She nods and Pippa flashes her a dazzling grin and Hecate’s heart aches. She drops her eyes and suddenly finds her fingernails to be quite of interest.

“I should get flying,” Pippa sighs after a moment. “It really is a bit of a journey and I want to get my students home in time for supper.”

She’s gazing at Hecate in a searching kind of way, and after so many years of animosity, followed by their recent foray into tenderness, Hecate feels like the world is tilting out of balance. Her heart wants to plead with Pippa to stay, anxious for more time - time to to talk, to _touch_ , to simply be in Pippa’s presence and look at her with the wonder that Hecate has always felt whenever she’s so lucky as to be by her side.

But her head knows that this is goodbye. That any feelings of longing and tenderness will be tucked away with the rest of her school days.

Like the rest of her heart.

And so she nods and Pippa sighs again.

“I best return the girl her cat. I fear I will miss coming to see you off.”

They stand together, awkwardly.

“Perhaps,” Pippa tries, her voice hesitant, “we don’t have to be such strangers?”

Hecate can’t bring herself to answer. And after a moment Pippa’s eyes drop and she turns away.

“Pippa.”

Hecate watches as Pippa freezes, back to her.

“I’d like that.”

She doesn’t expect Pippa to turn so quickly, or in one movement fling her arms about her neck. Her body pressed tightly against Hecate’s own, fingers clenching the fabric of Hecate’s dress as she stands, back ramrod straight, in shock but not displeasure.

There are so many things she wants to say to Pippa. Speeches she’s spent years preparing, and rewriting, and regretting. Grand explanations that she knows, even know, she’d never be able to give, but that weigh heavy on a mind grown weary from years of biting down.

“Good,” Pippa whispers, and Hecate struggles to understand why there are tears suddenly in her voice. “Good.”

Pippa pulls back and looks like she wants to say something, but instead shakes her head, smiling a little.

“I should be going.”

“Of course.”

Pippa’s hands clasp her own briefly. And then there’s a swift kiss to her cheek.

And then she is gone.

_____

Having handed the wayward, troublesome tabby cat back to its rightful owner, Hecate takes a long slow walk about the grounds, squinting in the early spring sun. The heat is nothing compared to the way she feels beneath her clothes, Pippa’s lips still flaming against the skin of her cheek.

Something within her is tightening and melting into goosebumps, tightening and making her breath catch, tightening and making her limbs heavy and her head dizzy. She feels restless. As if she has something she’s quite forgotten to do, something that needs doing if only she could recall just what the task is. But it’s a late afternoon just before the weekend, and Hecate she’s already finished her grading for the week, far ahead of schedule.

Pippa is still in her mind, and she lets the image of her linger. It makes her feel like she ought to stretch like a cat, as if there’s something within her that’s responding to the memory of Pippa that makes her anxious and languid all at once.

She frowns and bites her lip, quite certain that she knows what the feeling is when her thighs brush together under her dress and she has to grip at the fencepost and breathe through the shock of such a mind altering sensation.

It simply won’t do, she reprimands herself for the millionth time this week, to feel this way.

Sighing, she’s about to turn towards the school, return to her lab and set to work on a Numbing Solution, her very own special recipe, when the sun suddenly goes dark above her. Looking up, she frowns at the sudden appearance of dark and angry clouds, amassing like an angry swarm. They blot out the sun and billow across the sky and she freezes.  

 _Pippa_.

There’s a fork of lightning and Hecate transfers to her quarters on a thunderclap, just as the first torrent of rain slaps the windowpanes in a mighty downpour.

It makes Mildred’s weather spell look like a gentle mist, and Hecate whirls around, summoning her cloak and broom, casting a Drying Spell about her as she strides to the window and throws it open.

She doesn’t know how she’ll find Pippa and the children in such a squall, but she clenches her jaw determinedly, trying not think of how she’d feel if it were Mildred and Ethel up there in the sky, caught in fist of an unexpected gale.

Pippa’s a strong flier, she tells herself. And a sensible - _despite the penchant for pink_ \- witch. Surely she will have landed with the children at the first sign of in-climate weather.

But Hecate feels the tug of doubt in her mind. The storm has come on so quickly, it hardly seems likely that Pippa would have been prepared to expect it. Wincing as the rain meets her spell and rebounds in torrents, she kicks off and urges her broom into the sky, fighting to hold it steady against the wind.

 _Pippa_.

It’s the only thought in her mind. Reaching Pippa and ensuring that she’s safe. She risks removing one hand from her broom so she can cast a location spell, gasping when even such an movement causes her to scuttle off course.

She repositions, throwing one leg over the side of her broom for better control. Contact with the wooden handle of the broom sends a jolt through her light lightning, and she bites down hard on her lip out at the unexpected sensation it sends through her, even as she’s forced to rock forward to urge the broom higher still.

The wind whips at hair until it unfurls in a coil, tangling and wrapping around her throat, and she shakes her head until it streams out behind her before turning her broom into the tempest, following the dim red glow that’s she’s cast as a compass to Pippa.

Her hands begin to chill on the broomhandle, but she hasn’t a mind for a Warming Spell, not when it takes all her focus to keep herself upright, to keep herself on course. A particularly vicious gust hits her, and she spins out, shouting into the hurricane as she tips sideways then upside down.

It takes nearly all her strength to right herself.

And Zach and Sapphire had been small. So very small.

She grits her teeth and pushes her broom faster, ignoring the way the wood rubs mercelinessly against her, how her Drying Spell is losing power rapidly, how her dress is turning sodden and heavy as the rain pounds against her chilled, aching skin.

There’s a flash of lightning and a small broomstick hurtles past her - empty.

She cries out again, urging her broom ever faster, scanning the sky below for a sign of a child in distress. But there’s nothing but swirling, angry clouds, moving like a vendetta above the earth below.

Another flash and she prays that the glint of pink in the distance is her mark.

Dodging a thunderbolt, Hecate spins into a corkscrew, feeding power into her broom to increase its speed, gaining however incrementally on Pippa who is gripping her broom fiercely, jaw clenched in concentration as Hecate finally manages to bring her broom close enough to catch up to her.

“Pippa,” she gasps but her voice is lost to the wind. “The children -” she tries again louder this time and Pippa, eyes widen at Hecate’s sudden appearance, and she shakes her head.

“I transferred them ahead,” she calls, voice wiping in the wind. “When the storm came up on us - I couldn’t think of what else to do -”

“Pippa - the power that takes - you must be -” She breaks off and notes how Pippa is trembling on her broomstick, arms shaking in the gale.

“I didn’t have enough left to transfer myself.” Pippa gasps as a squall hits them, and she nearly blows off course.

“Pipsqueak - this weather. It’s hardly safe for a witch who hasn’t exhausted her powers -”

Pippa shakes her head resolutely. “I have no choice - landing would be just a dangerous as riding it out -”

She nearly slips sideways again and Hecate throws out an arm and grips her shoulder.

“We’ll double up. The weight will help stabilize us and it should help to combine and reserve our power. You’re in no condition to keep flying alone.” She tugs on Pippa’s arm trying to pull her close enough to slide onto her own broom, but Pippa shakes her head.

“My broom is sturdier.”

“Your broom is _pink_.”

Through her obvious exhausting, Pippa laughs. “Oh, Hecate, it might be pink but it’s made of sterner stuff than that old sweeper,” she shouts into the roar of the wind. “I had it upgraded to fifty percent more batpower last year and added in additional stabilizers. It’s the only reason I’ve lasted so long up here already.”

“Alright,” Hecate says, but eyes the broom with marked distrust. “But if we get blown to Timbuktu -”

“Then we can stay and have a holiday.”

Pippa slides forwards and Hecate notes that she’s also not riding side-seated either. She blushes as she shifts and throws a leg over Pippa’s broom, trying not to audibly gasp as Pippa slides back against her once she’s seated, body pressed tightly against her own as Hecate’s arms move around her to steady the broom.

Her own broom tumbles into the storm, lost, and she doesn’t have time to mourn, not when Pippa’s shaking so terribly in her arms and their broom is getting buffeted in all directions by swirling wind and slapping rain.

“It’s alright, Pipsqueak,” she assures her, voice gravelly with fear and from the intimacy of holding Pippa so close, “I’ve got you. It’s alright now.”

Pippa’s hands join hers on the handle, holding the broom steadier still, and together they stabilize enough to bring the broom a bit higher to where the wind is slightly less turbulent.

Hecate tries to ignore the press of Pippa against her chest, the heat that’s building in her like a furnace, even as the rain slicks down the back of her neck and lashes at her face. She stiffens her body, trying to ease the uncomfortable waves of desire that are rising within her, but Pippa’s lists a little to the side without Hecate to support her, and so she leans forward again, using her body as a brace.

“How far,” she gasps into Pippa’s ear and Pippa shakes her head, wet hair slapping against Hecate’s face.

“Another two hours, at least - though with the wind -”

“- We might make better time,” Hecate pants, adjusting her grip on the handle as a wall of water slams into them. “Provided we don’t get knocked from the sky.”

“How did you know how to find me?” Pippa’s hand slips on the broom and her fingers lace with Hecate’s pulling Hecate more securely against her back as their linked fingers wrap around the handle.

“Saw the storm come in just after you left - it came out of nowhere -”

“Zach was so scared.” Pippa murmurs, her voice whipping away and Hecate leans against her more to hear, chin nearly on Pippa’s shoulder. “He’s not my best flier -” Hecate can hear the fear in her voice, the utter exhaustion too. “I nearly lost Sapphire in the dark -”

She’s trembling and Hecate turns her head so that she can speak directly into Pippa’s ear. “You did right to send them on ahead,” she manages, heart pounding as they tip sideways to avoid a bolt of lighting. Pippa slides back against her and Hecate gasps at how her hips jerk forward along the broom’s handle at the motion. Pippa’s hand tightens in her own. “I just wish,” she gasps, once she’s recovered a bit, “that you’d had a plan for yourself.”

“I’m a strong flier.” Pippa shakes her head. “I would have managed. But I have to say that I’ve never been so glad to see you in all my years.” She mutters something else under her breath, but Hecate shakes water out of her years, unable to hear. “What - ?”

“Nevermind,” Pippa calls back. “Look - ” She’s pointing below them where the swirl of clouds is lighter in color and calmer in appearance. “That’s our chance - !”

Hecate sees it and angles the broom lower, charging towards the break as lightning licks the sky behind them. There’s a clap of thunder and her whole body tenses, Pippa suddenly taking control as Hecate cowares from the noise.

“Hold on, Hiccup, almost there.” And Hecate leans into her, blood surging through her veins as Pippa directs the broom through the clouds, popping out beneath them as rain continues to gust down upon them in a steady stream.

“Alright?” Pippa gasps, sounding breathless, and Hecate forces herself to take deep calming inhales as the air around them grows less fraught by gale force winds.

“Do you want to land?” She calls to Pippa, but Pippa shakes her head, spraying her with water again.

“I just want to get _home_ \- we’re not far now.”

Hecate nods but then realizes Pippa can’t see her. Even though the rain still lashes at them steadily, below the clouds the wind is less fiersom, the broom far easier to control. She lets out a breath and adjusts herself, fingers twitching as her body fills with heat from the friction between her legs.

Pippa must hear her gasp because she strains around to look at her, “Are you alright if we keep flying?”

“Yes,” she whispers, lips suddenly tingling and numb. “The sooner we arrive the better.”

Turning back, Pippa points to a hill in the distance, a large, cream castle sitting atop as jewel-green fields spread out below. “There’s Pentangle’s.”

Relief fills her and Hecate flies them onward, all too conscious of Pippa’s back against her chest. All too aware of how desperately her hips long to move with the rhythm of the storm. They fly in silence for a time, Pippa still shivering now and then, and Hecate pushes the broom to go a little faster the closer they get to the school.

“That tower - there -” Pippa directs, and Hecate takes them higher so they hover outside a large casement window. Pippa casts a flicker spell, and Hecate winces at its weakness, realizing again just how drained Pippa must be. But the window opens a crack and Pippa leans forward, pushing it the rest of the way open until Hecate can fly them through the tall window and onto an open expense of flagstone flooring.

Pippa tumbles off the broom, knees nearly giving way, and she catches herself on a elegantly carved chair laughing a in relief. It takes Hecate a moment to untangle her cloak and her legs from the broom, and she wishes away the pulsing between her thighs, looking around the room instead in hopes of distraction.

The layout is open and airy, with magnificently high, vaulted ceilings flanked by delicate tracery. The windows, broad, and tall, and arched, let in light even from the dark storm beyond, casting a myriad of grays and blues along the cream and pale pink finishes.  

Pippa sneezes, and soft candle light fills the space, making the air seem gentle and warm.

“Oh Merlin,” Pippa grimaces, “I know you frown upon accidental magic, but I do think that sneeze boosted my Light Spell. It wasn’t coming out at all until just then.”

Hecate shakes her head, aware that her long hair and gown is dripping into an ever growing puddle at her feet. She tries to feel her own magic but realizes just how exhausted she is, how terribly spent from the high emotions of the day, from the storm, from being so close to Pippa.

Still, she tries a Drying Spell, chagrined when nothing happens.

“You too, huh?” Pippa murmurs, giving her a look she can’t interpret.

“Well, you’re here now. Welcome to Pentangle’s.” She gestures around and Hecate notes again how well appointed the room is, how soft and pleasing everything seems.

How Pippa it is in every way.

“Let me just contact my Deputy and ensure Zach and Sapphire made it through safely. Let her know I’ve arrived and that my magic’s gone funny - ” Pippa busies herself over her maglet and Hecate stands awkwardly in the same spot as she landed, still dripping.

Pippa taps away on the screen for a moment and then looks up.

“She says she’ll send up some tea,” Pippa mutters still typing, “And some towels.” She laughs suddenly. “And she says we’re confined until we recover our magic. No exertion allowed.”

Hecate sniffs. “And you always let other people tell you what to do?”

Pippa’s head jerks up and eyes Hecate. “Hardly. You know I’m too stubborn for my own good.” But there’s something in her voice. She casts Hecate a speculative look and shakes her head, as if shaking what she really wants to say away instead.

Hecate flushes and looks down at the floor, her jaw clamping. Jealousy is clawing at her, and she reminds herself that she knows nothing about Pippa’s Deputy. That there’s no basis for her emotions. Still, they seem to have an easy, affectionate relationship. The thought makes her heart feel far too tight when she considers her own awkward dourness.

“Hey,” Pippa murmurs, and Hecate looks up to find her in her space. “Are you alright?”

Hecate shrugs, words not coming to her in the manner that they should.

She’s not alright, she wants to say. Her body feels overly sensitive. She’s cold, and wet in more ways than one, and there’s that terrible restless sensation running through her like a shiver as she stands under Pippa’s inquisitive gaze.

“Pippa,” she tries and her voice comes out hoarse. She shakes her head.

Pippa moves and little closer and her hand goes to Hecate’s hair, gathering a fistful and holding it out to the side of her. “My goodness,” Pippa’s laughs. “You look like a drowned nymph.”

Flushing hotly, Hecate sniffs. “I hardly think I’ve ever looked like a _nymph_.”

“But you do,” Pippa says, voice suddenly soft, suddenly low, and Hecate blinks at her, noting how something has shifted in Pippa’s face but she doesn’t quite know what to make of it. “I’ve always thought so.”

“You - you have?”

Pippa gathers Hecate’s hair in a coil and wrings some water out of it. It splashes down onto the floor and she unspools it again, running her hands through it until it lays flat. “Mmhmm. I have.”

Hecate can count the freckles on Pippa’s nose, notes her own hair has fallen from it’s chignon, turning dark and wavy from the rain. She swallows as she watches how beads of water cling along Pippa’s cheekbones and slide down her neck.

Suddenly, Pippa pulls away. “Avery was just settling an incident with an enchanted tuba, but she promises our supplies will be here soon. In the meantime, that dress looks awfully heavy. I know mine is.”

Pippa reaches to her neck and easies off the long pink cape, tossing in onto the windowsill. She reaches for the zipper on her back and frowns over at Hecate. “You’ll be much more comfortable in your underthings.” And Hecate feels the flare of a thousand suns rock through her as she blushes.

She watches as Pippa’s dress joins the puddle around her feet on the floor. Watches as Pippa, clad only in a satin, rose-hued slip, steps out of her shoes and tosses the pile on top of the cloak.

“May I?” Pippa murmurs, and suddenly her fingers are below Hecate’s chin, undoing the clasp.

And Hecate can hardly breath.

Pippa takes the cloak and smiles at her. “However you think you’ll be most comfortable.” She tosses the cloak atop her dress. “I can make a fire, while we wait. I recently found these things called _matches_. It really is quite clever the sorts of things non-Magicals cook up.”

She turns away, and Hecate tries not to watch the shape of her beneath the silk, or how the sodden fabric clings to her as she kneels before the grate and starts arranging the firewood.

Slowly, Hecate reaches up and eases down the zipper of her own dress, hands shaking as she steps out of it folds it neatly, placing it on the windowsill besides Pippa’s haphazard pile.

She feels naked without her magic. Feels naked as the air touches her damp and chilled flesh, her own dark slip sticky against her skin, her hair streaming down her back in a heavy river.

But something else, something curious, flashes through her as she stands uncertainty in the light of the window, storm raging outside.

A feeling low within her, present ever since Pippa’s arrival at Cackle’s. And she hardly dares breath for fear of hoping.

For she’s caught here with Pippa. Unable, and if she admits to herself, unwilling to leave.

Pippa has the fire going now, and kneels beside it, suddenly bathed in a warm, soft glow.

She turns to her, eyes capturing that same glow and Hecate swallows.

“Nymph.”

Something plays around Pippa’s mouth, and she rises, gesturing Hecate towards the fire.

Uncertainly, she takes a few steps forward.

“You can sit, you know,” Pippa says encouragingly. “I don’t mind if we get things damp, we can dry them by magic later -”

But Hecate continues to stand, heart pounding, throat dry.

She can’t take her eyes off Pippa and Pippa’s eyes find her own again.

For a moment there’s nothing but the storm outside, the crackling fire, the amber shadows that dance and leap around the curves of Pippa’s body.

“Hecate - ? ” 

Hecate can only swallow, eyes wide as tension grows in the air between them. As Pippa’s eyes blink shut and then open, that same secret expression from before playing about her features.

“You know,” Pippa says softly and takes a step forwards her. “I really have missed you.”

Her words cause a shiver to pass through Hecate and Pippa takes another step, eyes locked on her own.

“I’ve thought about you a lot over the years,” Pippa’s voice is warm.

 _Seductive_.

And Hecate can’t help the small noise that tumbles from her lips at the realization.

“I’ve thought about how beautiful you are,” Pippa murmurs, eyes dragging down Hecate’s form. “I thought about all the time we spent together as girls.”

She takes another step.

“I thought about how if you were lovely then, you’re stunning now.”

Overwhelmed, Hecate shakes her head.

“You are.” But Pippa stills. Lowers her chin and says softly. “Tell me if this is not alright.”

Breathlessly, Hecate gazes at her. Licks her lips

Nods.

Pippa smiles, eyes moving over Hecate’s form and Hecate watches as she swallows several times before continuing.

“I always loved your hair, down and loose when we were young.”

Another step.

“But then when we grew up, I thought you were just as - “ she swallows again. “- alluring.”

She’s barely a pace away now and Hecate longs to reach for her. To tug her in and crush her against her, but she finds her limbs are froze. She can only stare, breathless in anticipation.

“Even when we were fighting,” Pippa says softly, “There was something in me that wanted to be close to you. I only stayed away because I thought that’s what you wanted.”

Aching, Hecate shakes her head. Pippa bites her lip.

“You know,” she breathes, “seeing you with your hair piled up on your head, your spine so straight, your utter command of your magic - ” she pauses, eyes boring into Hecate’s. “- I’ve imagined you telling me what to do in bed. More than once.”

There’s a blush on Pippa’s cheeks and Hecate feels her own cheeks flame, fire flaring hot and deep within her until her knees tremble and she bites her lip to keep from whimpering.  

“Pippa,” she gasps, and Pippa stills.

“Tell me if this is not alright,” Pippa repeats, and Hecate looks at her, eyes pleading.

“Maybe you want me to tell you want to do,” Pippa breathes, curiosity flitting across her face, and Hecate stills.

She shivers, images playing through her mind, and gasps in a breath.  “I want - ” she tries, voice hoarse, hardly daring. “- you. I Love. You. Pipsqueak.”

And suddenly Pippa’s smiling, like the sun cresting the horizon on all those long forgotten daybreaks of their childhood. Back when Hecate wanted to kiss her, every bit as much as she wants to kiss her now.

“You love me?”

There’s such wonder in Pippa’s voice and she steps closer, through her movements are hesitant now, as if Hecate might turn her away. She suddenly seems awfully vulnerable, standing before Hecate in her bare feet, and Hecate nods, willing Pippa to understand.

“But I thought -” Pippa pauses, shakes her head and reaches out haltingly until her fingertips just touch Hecate’s cheek.

“You thought - ?” Hecate manages, and Pippa tilts her head.

“This. Between us. The way you’ve acted all week. Even with our reconciliation, I thought you felt about me was mostly - well - _physical_.”

Hecate blinks at her. “You think I flew after you simply for - for - ”

Pippa laughs. “Yes, darling. I could have managed the storm, you know I could have. I was a little tired of course - but then you started touching me. And my magic went all funny. And I couldn’t stop how my body was reacting to your touch - and all I’ve thought about all week was pressing you up against nearest wall and -”

She breaks off, a blush flooding her cheeks and she ducks her head, studying her toes.

“Is it - just - physical - for you?” Hecate chokes out, apprehension mounting, though so on edge that she wonders if at this point it would be such a bad thing if it were.

Slowly, Pippa raises her eyes. “Oh, my gorgeous Hiccup. For me it never was.”

“Never was - ?”

Around her the colors of the room are bleeding together and nothing makes sense except for how close Pippa’s face is to her own.

Pippa’s fingers find her cheek again.

“Don’t you know how long I’ve been in love with you?”

Hecate gapes at her.

“In _love_ \- ?”

Pippa looks at her, eyes searching. “I thought you knew - or at least - I used to. I thought that’s why you left. And then for years when you’d see me - you’d act like - like -”

“Like what?”

“Like you wanted to - “ she breaks off and blushes magnificently. “- _hate fuck_ me,” Pippa whispers, her cheeks burning, and Hecate’s jaw drops as her whole body erupts in fire.

Sputtering, Hecate comes up empty on the ability to formulate words, and Pippa cocks her head.

“So then I thought that you’d left because you found me insipid and foolish - too into pink, too into fashion - a disgrace to witchery.” She looks vulnerable and Hecate gasps for air, shaking her head. “But the way you’d _look_ _at me_ -” Pippa murmurs, and her fingers slide into Hecate’s hair and along her scalp, tugging gently at the wet strands until Hecate is helplessly spinning out of control at her touch. “ - I knew you were thinking the same thing I was.”

Pippa’s lips are close now, her nose nearly brushing Hecate’s and Hecate struggles to breathe, struggles to remain upright. Her hands clench and unclench at her sides and she shivers.

“Tell me I’m not wrong,” Pippa whispers, and Hecate’s hands fly upwards and anchor themselves on Pippa’s hips instead as she shudders out a breathless -  

“You’re not.”

Pippa brushes her nose against Hecate’s, fingers tightening in Hecate’s hair.

“So it’s not just physical for you, either.” She eyes are wide, and Hecate shakes her head, gasping when it causes Pippa’s fingers to tug.

“Hecate -” Pippa whispers, and it’s so utterly, desperately needy, terribly vulnerable, and Hecate tightens her grip on Pippa’s waist, swaying slightly from delirium.

“Tell me you want this,” Pippa whispers, and Hecate’s breath catches in her throat.

“I want this.” It’s hardly more than a mumble of words, said on an inhale, and Hecate tilts her head a little closer. “Pippa -”

They move together in like a surging storm, wind meeting rain, lightning racing thunder. Mouths meet and slide hungrily together and Hecate feels a thousand dizzying sunbursts explode through her senses. Pippa backs her up until her she hits the wall by the windows.

And Hecate finds herself pinned, Pippa suddenly everywhere, mouth desperate against her own, hands sliding down and across her slip, through her hair, down her thighs and up again.

She arches, utterly at Pippa’s mercy, and Pippa presses against her, biting at her bottom lip as her hand drags up Hecate’s side.

“Pippa -” Hecate gasps, turning her face away for air, trembling when Pippa rocks against her, thigh slipping between Hecate’s own until Hecate hums with need.

“I love you -” Pippa gasps back, and when she looks up from tracking kisses down Hecate’s neck, her eyes are fierce. She sounds defiant, and Hecate cups her face, bringing her up and into a searing kiss.

“You love me -?” Hecate gasps, her mind is spinning as Pippa pins her to the wall with her body, cold, rain-slicked skin flaming under Hecate’s hand as she grips Pippa’s back.

Pippa bites her neck a little roughly and Hecate shudders, then shudders again as the movement causes Pippa’s thigh to press more fully between her legs.

She longs to rock her hips forward, but resists, trying to breath around all the emotions spiraling through her. As if sensing her dilemma Pippa takes her arms and presses them to the wall above her head until Hecate is fully at Pippa’s mercy.

“Tell me,” Pippa breathes, mouth hot against her ear, “what did you do alone in your room last night.” Her tongue is gentle behind Hecate’s ear and Hecate hisses as Pippa scraps her teeth over sensitive flesh. “Did you touch yourself. Did you imagine I was touching you?” She kisses her way up and sucks on Hecate’s lower lip before resting her forehead against Hecate’s. Her hips roll forward in a dizzying rhythm and Hecate arches, but doesn’t look away.

“Pippa -” Hecate gasps, control fraying at the edges as Pippa’s thigh rocks against her.

“I know you must have touched yourself,” Pippa whispers against her lips. “Tell me what it felt like.”

Hecate lets her head roll back and stares at her, mind finally processes Pippa’s words from before. Her behavior this evening. She lets out a shuddering breath and meets Pippa’s gaze head on.

“I -” she tries, voice coming out too hoarse. She swallows. “I touched myself while pretending I was touching you.”

She feels her cheeks flame and Pippa drops her arms, staring at her.

“You pretended you were touching me?”

The air between them shifts.

“Yes,” Hecate whispers, suddenly bold, and pushes Pippa back by her hips. “You weren’t wrong. About me. At all.”

She watches Pippa watching her. She’s backing Pippa up now, not touching her, and Pippa gazes up at her with parted lips, eyes wide.

“Miss Pentangle.”

She feels a slow smile curves across her lips and allows her spine to straighten as her posture shifts. And Pippa shivers, biting at her lower lip.  

Raising her chin further she watches the way Pippa’s breathing changes.

“I think we’re a good match,” she says and Pippa laughs.

The air crackles between them, and Pippa steps forward until they are toe to toe. She touches Hecate’s cheek and rises on her tiptoes, kissing her softly. “I love you,” she whispers, and her eyes are shining.

Hecate’s hands come up, steady, sure, no longer trembling, and she takes Pippa’s face between her them, cradling her between her palms. “I left because I loved you,” she confirms, voice breaking. And Pippa blinks back sudden tears.

“I know. I know.”

Leaning in, Hecate bites gently at her lower lip.

“I still love you.”

“You do?”

She smiles, blinking as a flare of light arches across the room, sunlight breaking through the clouds as they pile up into purple and blue spools against the green of the hills beyond.

Everything seems other worldly in the half-light, jeweled and pastel toned, and Hecate kisses Pippa again, letting herself linger as Pippa’s mouth moves softly beneath her own.

“I do.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You don’t think I’m just a silly witch?” Pippa breathes, shame still tugging at her, pulling her towards uncertainty.
> 
> She’s unprepared for the look of devastation that crosses Hecate’s face.
> 
> “No.” Hecate shakes her head, tears in her eyes, and her hands move from Pippa’s up to cup her face. “No. Kind. _Brilliant_. I admit you have terrible taste in puns - ‘high pent,’ _honestly,_ Pippa, you really are quite shameless - but silly?” She sucks in a breath and smiles a little crookedly at Pippa’s own huff of relieved laughter. “When I say I love you,” Hecate says softly, voice low, and warm, and so sincere it has Pippa trembling, “I don’t mean that I only love a memory of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kinda feel terrible about myself rn so i stayed in bed all morning and watched the snow and wrote utter hicsqueak smut and if that isn't self care than what is?

Purple and gray clouds roll back over the sun, casting the room once again in a rain-streaked run of colors. Pippa shivers at the cool air on her exposed shoulders, the stone of the flooring cold against her knees, and finds Hecate’s eyes from where she sits perched her on the settee, a towel pulled demurely around her shoulders. Her eyes are dark and her hair, spilling down around her, is equally so. And Pippa feels a her stomach dip with longing at the sight.

She ducks her head and focuses on the tea tray that has appeared with a chime and a shimmer on the small coffee table, watching the steam spiral up from the teapot’s spout as the silence draws out heavily between them.

Shivering again at the tension, she shifts, the floor digging into her knees as she kneels, her fingers hesitant as she reaches out and lets one rest on the edge of a nearby teacup. She can feel Hecate’s eyes on her, but when she looks up, Hecate has her own head bowed, studying her fingers with determined avoidance.

Pippa sighs.

 _We’re practically strangers_.

It had come up between them like a sudden wall - Hecate easing her away to stare at her, wide eyed and trembling - after Pippa had thoughtlessly gasped out the words.

It’s just that she’d been struck by a sudden, terrifying, awful sort of fear.

 _You hardly know me -_ she’d managed, going cold in Hecate’s arms. _Thirty years is a long time - and the witch you loved all those years ago - I’m hardly the same - and surely you have changed a great deal as well -_

And Hecate had recoiled as through struck, eyes wet and wide as she’d backed away, only for Pippa to grasp her hands and hold her fast.

_What if you don’t like me anymore, Hiccup?_

Pippa shivers for a third time.

She can still see in her mind’s eyes how Hecate’s eyes had gone suddenly gone soft at that.

Retracting her hand from the teacup, Pippa touches the edge of her cheek instead where Hecate’s long fingers had tucked her hair back after, lingering on the strands before tilting Pippa’s face up for a kiss.

The arrival of the tea tray and towels, and the shift between them, had broken the  fervor of the moment. And when Hecate had suggested tea, Pippa had found herself more than relieved at the opportunity to collect herself.

And yet insecurity lingers.

It makes her stomach feel edgy and her spine tingle. She longs to push it down, but can’t quite will it out of the way.

Hecate had left her after all.

Had thrust her from her life for three heartbroken decades.

And Pippa somehow can’t shake the feeling that Hecate will somehow see through her - will see her fears and her inadequacies. Will see how she’s grown and not trust her for it. Will see how she hasn’t and like her less.

“I haven’t changed very much at all, if that eases your concern,” Hecate says suddenly, eyes still not meeting Pippa’s. “I received my degree and went to work at Cackle’s. I’ve hardly left the place since. My days are still breakfasts, and study halls, and detentions, and lessons. I’ve hardly been adventurous.”

Pippa swallows, pouring out the tea and holding it out to Hecate, trying to stay the tremor in her wrist as her muscles fight for control over her anxiety.

“What if I’m not the witch you expect me to be?” Pippa counters, frowning at how frail her voice sounds, a twinge of desperation in her tone that makes her cringe.

Hecate takes a sip of tea and her cheeks turn pink, eyes locking onto Pippa’s in a way that makes her stomach pool with heat.

“You’ve remember how I take my tea,” Hecate says plainly, and set the teacup aside, eyes burning into Pippa’s. “Thirty years on and you’ve remembered.”

Pippa shakes her head. “Remembering how someone you’ve shared meals with for much of your childhood takes their tea isn’t the same is knowing them once they’re quite grown up. You don’t know present day me - what if you come to find she’s not the witch you used to care for?”

Hecate shakes her head. “I’d like to get to know that witch.” She cocks her head. “Though, I have a sense who who she is, and I hardly think it a change from our youth.” Smiling in a way that makes Pippa feel like Hecate can see right through her, she continues. “I have a hunch that she’s the sort of witch that will throw a competition in favor of her opponent if it means giving a young girl some self-confidence.”

At Pippa’s flush, Hecate’s eyes glint further. “And don’t think I don’t remember how you’d always place behind me intentionally, even though you were always top of class, if Broomhead was around so that I wouldn’t get punished.”

There’s pain in Hecate’s voice, old and mellowed with time, but still there.

And something else.

After a moment Pippa realizes it’s affection.

“Hecate - “

She shakes her head. “I shouldn’t have taken that girl's cat. I fear you suppose I’ve become the bully that you always guarded me against.”

Pippa bows her head. “I worried, at first. But then - “ She shakes her head. “I know how you get when you’re afraid for someone. When you are trying to protect them.” She reaches out and presses her finger to the gathering condensation on the side of the rose patterned teapot, rolling it under her finger as she studiously avoids Hecate’s eyes. “Like when Marta Sparrow accidentally unleashed that lightning storm through the castle and you tried to lock me in your room to keep me safe. When I wouldn’t let you go out there alone we had such a row. You didn’t speak to me for a week afterwards. I know it was because you were afraid I would get hurt. I know it was because you were scared.”

Hecate makes a small noise and Pippa finally forces herself to look up.

“But I was scared for you, too, you know. And I couldn’t let you go without me.”

Hecate’s hands are clasped in her lap and she’s gazing at Pippa, eyes both bright and wet, and Pippa draws in a shallow inhale.

“And I suppose sometimes I question if I ever really knew you. You’ve always seemed mysterious to me.”

Hecate smiles at that, mouth drawing up slowly into an amused curve.

“You can be a little mysterious too.”

“I can be?”

The way Hecate’s lips continue to turn up is secretive, as if she knows something about Pippa that Pippa cannot hope to fathom. It makes the heat in her midsection grow in intensity and she drops her fingers until she can dig her nails into the wood of the table, trying to breath as Hecate looks at her.

“I hope,” Hecate murmurs, and Pippa watches her breathe, “for the opportunity to get to know you. But I also know - still know - that you still have a kinder heart than this world deserves - than I deserve. I’ve done a great deal to hurt your heart. And I would like very much now to spend as much time as possible trying to mend it.” She reaches for Pippa and Pippa notes that her own hand is far from steady. “If I may.”

Hardly breathing, Pippa lets the tips of her fingers come to rest in Hecate’s palm and Hecate rises in a swift movement, towel falling away as she pulls Pippa up from the floor.

The fire casts flickering amber and gray shadow across them, and Pippa can feel the blazing heat against her side, the chill of the room on her other, the flame of Hecate just before her, drawing her closer, pulling her in, until they’re hip to hip, lips inches apart.

“You don’t think I’m just a silly witch?” Pippa breathes, shame still tugging at her, pulling her towards uncertainty.

She’s unprepared for the look of devastation that crosses Hecate’s face.

“No.” Hecate shakes her head, tears in her eyes, and her hands move from Pippa’s up to cup her face. “No. Kind. _Brilliant._ I admit you have terrible taste in puns - ‘high pent,’ _honestly_ , Pippa, you really are quite shameless - but silly?” She sucks in a breath and smiles a little crookedly at Pippa’s own huff of relieved laughter. “When I say I love you,” Hecate says softly, voice low, and warm, and so sincere it has Pippa trembling, “I don’t mean that I only love a memory of you.”

Hecate drops her hands to Pippa’s hips, pulling her flush. “I’ve wasted so much time,” she murmurs, lips ghosting down Pippa’s cheek as she nuzzles at her ear. “I’ve been such a fool.” Her fingers tighten and Pippa gasps, both at the way it feels to be pinned between Hecate’s palms, and the way that Hecate’s voice thrums, low and hot against her ear. “I have one priority now,” she intones and Pippa whimpers.

“And what is that?”

And Hecate draws back, eyes dark, hands dropping until her fingers tangle with Pippa’s own.

“You should know I’m just as possessive as ever.” She brings up Pippa’s hands and kisses the back of each one, eyes never leaving Pippa’s own. “So you see I really haven’t changed.” Her hands return to Pippa’s hips and she begins to back her up, slowly, slowly, guiding Pippa around the table and backwards into the open expanse of room. “And I’m just as protective as ever.” Her eyes glint. “I like knowing you’re safe. That you’re being cared for.”

Pippa’s mind tumbles over itself, trying to sort out Hecate’s meaning even as she thrums, shot through with dizzying arousal.

“I’ve made you doubt yourself,” Hecate murmurs. “I’ve made you feel insecure and unwanted.” Her hands are firm on Pippa’s hips, anchoring her, and Pippa squeaks out a protestation even as tears fill her eyes.

Hecate eyes bore into her own. “I’m going to show you just how much you’re wanted. How desirable I find you. If that’s what you’d like.”

Swaying, Pippa gazes at her. “Please,” she whispers, something inside her dissolving as she leans into Hecate. “I - I - yes. Please.”

Hecate smiles against her hairline and moves a hand to tilt Pippa’s chin until she can kiss her. It’s completely controlled, Hecate owning the pace and intensity, and Pippa’s whole body softens at the contact, desperate for Hecate to take the lead.

“Darling,” Hecate murmurs, as she kisses her way back to Pippa’s ear. “Where is your bedroom?”

Fingers tightening on Hecate’s shoulders, Pippa lets her eyes track across the room and Hecate smiles. She brings a hand through the air and twists, and then freezes, looking rather put off. “No magic for transfer,” she hisses, and Pippa can’t help the laugh that tumbles out of her, growing louder as Hecate looks all the more affronted by her outburst.

“No magic,” Pippa confirms, fingers pressing into Hecate’s shoulders. “You’ll have to take me to bed yourself.”

Hecate stops looking affronted and looks startled instead, as if the rush of arousal that Pippa can tell is coursing through her is also unexpected. “Don’t act so surprised,” she murmurs, “that I want this.”

Dark eyebrows lift for a moment, then drop, and Hecate takes her hand. “It will take some getting use to.”

“And some practice.” She lets Hecate guide her forward, shivering as one of Hecate’s slender arms dips about her waist to hold her against her side as they walk.

“You know I dearly love to practice.”

“I know.”

They reach the door and Hecate presses her up against it, one hand back on Pippa’s hip, the other on the knob.

“Pippa,” Hecate whispers, body almost pressing against her own, but holding off.

“Hmmmm?”

Hecate doesn’t respond, only kisses her. And Pippa falls into the kiss, dizzy and helpless as she lets herself settle back into letting Hecate set the pace, gasping when Hecate’s body finally closes the distance to trap her against the heavy door.

The wood is cool at her back, Hecate like a flame against her front, and she rolls her hips a little desperately at the sensation.

“None of that yet,” Hecate murmurs in her ear and pulls away. Her hand turns on the knob until the door swings open, and she presses Pippa backwards until they’re in the large, vaulted tower of Pippa’s room.

The storm is casting shadows around the chamber, half-light filtering through gauzy curtains, and Pippa feels weightless and languid, as if floating through the greens, and blues, and grays of some underwater scene.

“On the bed,” Hecate instructs, then snorts a little as Pippa’s knees go out and she has to catch her about the waist and hold her upright. “You’re not going to last long at all, are you?”

Pippa flushes, trembling as she tries to control her body’s responses. And Hecate guides her back to sits her on the edge of the bed, hovering between her knees as Pippa’s whole body bows back at the sight. “Thirty years, darling.”

Hecate touches her cheek. “I know.” But her eyes turn wicked and she sneers a little, causing Pippa whimper at the familiar arousal that accompanies the expression. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

Her own words from the Spelling Bee thrown back at her, Pippa loops her arms around Hecate’s shoulders and laughs, even as the edges of her senses pulse with desire, driving her to distraction. “Let’s save the competitive sex for later in the evening, shall we?”

Eyes dark, Hecate kisses her fiercely; teeth, and tongue, and promise. “Agreed.” She nuzzles her nose against Pippa’s. “I’m going to take your slip off now.”

Shifting under the way Hecate looks at her, Pippa gasps as cool fingers find their way beneath the strap of her underdress and tug down, first the right side and then the left. Hecate leans in and places a tender kiss to each dip of shoulder on either side, and when she looks up her eyes are warm.

“Stand.”

Legs trembling, Pippa allows Hecate to help her upright, swallowing as Hecate eases the slip further down, little by little, taking her time, until the garment drops and Pippa stands before her nearly bare.

Hecate makes a noise filled with total, utter longing, and Pippa closes her eyes at the way her body shudders at the sound. She feels hesitant fingers ghosting over her abdomen, long fingers growing bolder, as Hecate explores her skin.

“Keep breathing,” Hecate murmurs, and Pippa cracks an eye open.

“Are you telling that to me, or reminding yourself?”

Hecate freezes and then laughs, the sound unexpected, and Pippa grins as well, then gasps as Hecate’s finds her breasts, fingers playing over her nipples. Already so tight from the chill of the room, Pippa cries out with now nearly painful with need they’ve become as Hecate drops her head and takes one in her mouth. The sensation of heat against her skin causes Pippa to jerk, and her knees nearly go out again as Hecate’s tongue swirls, mouth tugging on the nipple until Pippa’s hissing desperately.

Heat is filling her body, an utterly uncontrollable need, and she shifts impatiently, wondering if she ought to push Hecate down onto the bed and press herself against her to shamelessly come undone as her own fingers find the place between Hecate’s legs that she knows will draw Hecate to her own brink.

But in one movement Hecate has straightened, drawing Pippa’s hands back behind her back and holding them fast. “I can practically hear you thinking.” Hecate’s eyebrows lift, and Pippa finds herself delighting in the half-hearted struggle against Hecate’s grip. Her whole body is flaring with need and she presses her thighs together.

“Hecate - ”

“Mmmm,” Hecate kisses her, briefly, too briefly, and Pippa chokes on a whimper.  “On the bed.”

It takes Pippa a moment to move, she fears a single brush of air against her will bring her tipping over the edge, but at Hecate’s gentle look, she shifts back, scooting inward until she can lie in the center.

She looks up at Hecate who smiles.

“Shall I take this off?” Hecate gestures to her own slip and Pippa nods eagerly, watching hungrily as Hecate slowly reaches up and pulls the strap of her slip down her arm. She pauses, then repeats the process on the other side, before tossing her head so her damp hair spills down her shoulders like a cloak, hiding her from view as her slip slides down her legs.

Pippa arches off the bed, hand pressing against the naked flesh of her stomach as she moans. “Not fair.”

“Neither is trying to touch yourself,” Hecate chides, suddenly over her as she catches her hand and pins it up above Pippa’s had. “I would categorize that as _un_ fair.” Her hair like a river down her front, and Pippa presses up with her hips instead to where Hecate sits atop her, panting with frustration as she searches desperately for pressure.

Her other hand joins her first and Hecate leans forward, hair falling forward over them like a tent, and Pippa cries out at the sight of her, finally revealed.

“Hecate - “ she gasps, “Hecate, you’re so beautiful.”

Hecate’s eyes turn liquid and soft and she shifts down to her elbows, locking her fingers in with Pippa’s as she kisses her gently. “No comparison to you, however,” she whispers, and pulls a hand back to trail down between Pippa’s breasts and then further down her abdomen.

“You are though -” Pippa chokes out, refusing to be distracted by the way Hecate’s fingers move so gently over her skin. “You’re gorgeous, Hiccup.”

Hecate still looks uncertain, but kisses the corner of her mouth. Her fingers slip lower, resting just before Hecate’s own center where if meets the curve of Pippa’s torso. “I confess I’m rather overwhelmed,” she whispers. “Having a witch as gorgeous as you in bed. Having _you_ in bed.”

Pippa smiles, then shudders as Hecate’s hand creeps lower and she raises herself just enough for her wrist to pass between her body and Pippa’s.

“I must confess that I’m rather overwhelmed at being _had_ by _you_.”

They look at each other, hardly breathing, and Hecate’s fingers brush the top of Pippa’s underwear, slipping lower until Pippa is keening.

“I mean to have you,” Hecate says solemnly, watching Pippa’s face as she fights to hold in all the small, desperate noises that are threatening to spill out at Hecate’s touch. “I mean to have you like this,” her fingers move a little more intentionally and Pippa whimpers. She retracts her hand. “I mean to have you like this,” she shifts so that her thigh is between Pippa’s legs instead. But before Pippa can press against it she’s moved again, kissing her way down Pippa’s chest. “I mean to have you like this,” Hecate whispers, mouth against the fabric still covering Pippa’s center and Pippa jerks at the heat of Hecate’s mouth through the cloth, head slamming back into the pillows as she feels Hecate smile against her.

In her desperation, she can feel Hecate easing her underwear off and suddenly she is completely bare, laid out before Hecate and nearly over the edge. She clutches at the pillows but Hecate pulls her bodily upwards until Pippa’s straddling her lap in the center of the bed, head lolling back as she fights against the rising tide within her.

“Like this,” Hecate whispers, fingers creeping lower again, and Pippa grabs her wrist, stilling her just before she can touch her.

Hecate immediately freezes.

“I’m sorry,” Pippa gasps, head spinning, body a riot of overwhelming sensation. “It’s just so much. It just feels like so much -”

Hecate’s other hand, looped around her waist to hold her securely upright, tightens around her and Pippa grounds herself in the secure comfort of her touch.

“We don’t have to do anything -”

 _“No._ ” Pippa demands, hips rolling uselessly, Hecate’s hand still clutched in her own, just out of reach from where she wants it. “No, I _want_ -”

She doesn’t know how to go on. She struggles, and then finally managers, “I’ve waited for this so long, and I’m - I’m -”

Hecate turns her hand in Pippa’s and brings their locked fingers up so that she can kiss Pippa’s fingertips.

“You’re going to come the moment I touch you.” Hecate’s voice is low, but instead of amusement, Pippa can hear only awe, and it drives her higher still.

“More than likely,” she admits, blushing as her hips continue to frantically press against the air.

“Darling,” Hecate breathes, and moves their hands again so she can guide Pippa’s fingers down her own body, over her sternum and down her belly. Slowly, she moves Pippa’s fingers so they're pressing between her own legs. “Darling.” And Pippa keens at feeling her own touch, at being in control, and yet not being in control, and her hips surge forward, desperate for more pressure as Hecate kisses her.

“Do you remember when you fell off your broom in fifth year.” She directed Pippa’s fingers to move slowly, deliberately, and Pippa’s whole body shudders. “You hadn’t been riding side-seated, the way Miss Christie told us we always must.” She pulls Pippa’s hand a little lower, teasing her. “Then suddenly you went all funny, and stopped breathing properly, and then you just -” Hecate presses Pippa’s fingers against her entrance, “fell.”

Body thrumming with tension, Pippa struggles, trying to thrust herself against her own fingers, frustrated when Hecate backs them off.

“I caught you,” Hecate breathes, and Pippa whimpers at the memory. “Suddenly your arms were around me.” Pippa cries out, burying her face in Hecate’s neck as Hecate’s breath gusts against her ear. “And your whole body was on edge. You were trembling. You felt good. I could tell.”

She removes Pippa’s hand and guides her arms up around her neck instead, fingers finding the base of Pippa’s skull and pulling her head up until they’re nose to nose. Her hand snakes back between their bodies, stroking low on Pippa’s belly until Pippa’s tripping continuously over little noises of frustration, unable to hold herself under any semblance of control. “I didn’t know what it meant - what had happened - ” Hecate breathes, fingers inching lower. “I don’t think you knew what it meant either. Not at first.”

Pippa tightens her grip around Hecate. “Hiccup -”

“That night,” Hecate murmurs, and lets her mouth brush over Pippa’s, tugging at her bottom lip until Pippa’s frantic. “I went back out.” Her fingers inch lower. “And I didn’t ride side-seated either.” She lets her fingers part Pippa, and Pippa’s head drops back at the sensation, sound echoing through the quiet room at Hecate’s touch.

“And I realized what it was,” Hecate breathes, fingers slicking through Pippa’s heat, causing electricity to surge through her every nerve as she writhes in Hecate’s arms.

“I want you to know,” Hecate whispers, mouth against her neck. “That I will catch you,” her fingers find Pippa’s entrance, “every time you fall. Always.”

She’s inside of her, and Pippa screams, whole body seizing as her hips wildly buck against Hecate’s hand, muscles clenching, back arching, lungs gasping for air as she comes undone. Lights and color drown out all senses other than pleasure - hot, intense, thrilling pleasure -  and her hands are in Hecate’s hair, tugging forcefully as her whole being shatters in Hecate’s arms. It’s too much, and it’s not enough, and she fucks herself on Hecate’s fingers, wild, and helpless, and completely, terribly vulnerable.

And she falls, she falls, she falls.

Pleasure is burning her bodying, she’s crying in deep shuddering gasps, and blindly collapsing backwards. The sensation of Hecate inside her is overwhelming in its intensity - just as much as it’s a fulfillment of utter longing.

She cries out again as Hecate moves over her, guiding her through aftershocks that are hardly aftershocks at at, not when Pippa’s still thrusting onto Hecate’s fingers, body beyond her own control, mind splintering in a million pieces as she comes again and again.

There’s darkness then, a short span that feels like a sort of disembodied peace, and then she’s blinking her eyes open, vision clearing to find Hecate resting by her side. Her fingers are still deep within her, and Hecate’s eyes wet and warm, and so utterly gentle that Pippa feels tears in her own eyes again as well.  

“Oh.”

Hecate shifts a little and Pippa gasps, body still reacting, and Hecate stills.

“Miss Pentangle.”

It should be humiliating that she comes again from that - weakly - but still enough that Hecate’s smirking at her by the time it passes.

Very, very carefully, Hecate slips her fingers free, shifting so that Pippa’s leg is up and over her own, applying a pressure that comforts rather than arouses as she draws Pippa securely into her arms.

“Well,” Hecate sighs. “That was something.”

Knowing she’s blushing, Pippa keeps her face tucked into Hecate’s shoulder, hands clutching at her back.

“Careful, your smugness is really a terrible turn on,” she admits, and feels Hecate’s ribs move in amusement beneath her hands.

“Is that so?”

Pippa rocks herself a little against Hecate’s thigh and digs her fingers into her back as she rides out another aftershock. “Mmmm.”

“Can you imagine what will happen when I use my mouth?”

The sound Pippa lets out at that is thoroughly embarrassing, but Hecate tilts her face up and Pippa lets her mind turn blank and warm as Hecate guides her through a tender kiss.

“Not if I use mine first,” Pippa hums, and kisses Hecate more boldly.

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

Pippa grins.

“It’s both.”

She shifts so her own thigh is between Hecate’s and uses her body a leverage so that Hecate is suddenly at her mercy below her on the bed.

“You said that you’ve hardly been adventurous?” she queries, pressing Hecate down and watching as Hecate’s eyes go wide and then vulnerable. “Does that apply to in bed?”

Biting her lip, she traces Hecate’s cheek, pleased when Hecate pushes herself up against her, meeting the roll of Pippa’s hips with her own.

“Yes, but out of lack of opportunity, not desire.”

“Desire,” Pippa intones, mouth working it’s way up Hecate’s neck to her ear. She draws back and holds Hecate’s gaze, dropping down inch by inch until Hecate’s squirming and their lips are nearly brushing. “Well, then,” she murmurs, and her hands find Hecate’s wrists again. “Let the adventures begin.”


End file.
